Shipp: No profit in watching Atlanta go down the drain

Posted: Sunday, December 07, 2003

The city of Atlanta may be about to get a new hard-nosed boss. No, Mayor Shirley Franklin is not stepping down. The federal district court is about to step in. The new de facto mayor could turn out to be U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash or one of his appointed agents.

Bill

Shipp

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Atlanta has refused to obey Judge Thrash's orders to stop defiling a pair of the state's principal river basins. Atlanta, with its overflowing and dilapidated sewer system, is turning the Chattahoochee River into a septic stream. The Flint is not much better.

The city says it does not have the billions required to comply with the court's orders to repair its sewers and clean up the affected streams. The Atlanta City Council declines to approve the necessary increases in water and sewer bills to underwrite the overhaul. The state of Georgia refuses to help its beleaguered capital, and Fulton County is throwing up its hands as well. The city's credit rating on Wall Street is suddenly in the toilet, so to speak.

State Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson of Savannah sums up the feelings of the state and county succinctly, even if not compassionately:

''Atlanta's City Council members seem to believe that someone is going to fix their sewers for them. Hey, Atlanta, there is no Santa Claus! Nobody is going to come down your chimney with a bag of money!''

The bond rating services are lining up to downgrade the City of Atlanta's credit. Boomtown may be about to go bust. The operative phrase for Atlanta financial paper: ''Junk bonds.''

''Receivership'' has become the other trendy word echoing along the corridors of City Hall and the federal courthouse.

The finger pointing has begun. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution blames former Mayor Bill Campbell for letting the sewerage system collapse. ''The whole (court-ordered Atlanta water and sewer) project would have been much easier and less expensive 10 years ago if former Mayor Bill Campbell had shown the leadership and foresight to do it. He did not. And he left another bomb set to go off over the next several decades: the city is carrying $1.7 billion in bond debt issued during the Campbell administration to fix the water and sewer system," the newspaper editorialized.

Next question: What happened to the borrowed money? It was not spent on handling wastewater, that is for sure.

Let's be fair. This is an equal-opportunity mess.

In 1990 a gubernatorial candidate named Roy Barnes put the blame on rival candidate, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. Said Barnes: ''For eight years, Andrew Young did nothing while Atlanta poisoned our state. Now, he's running for governor promising more of the same.'' Barnes' accusations came a day after a federal report severely criticized the EPA for failing to stop Atlanta from dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into its streams. Both Barnes and Young lost their bid for governor. Zell Miller won. The pollution problem grew worse as Atlanta prospered more.

Campbell and Young are not the only culprits. Mayors Maynard Jackson, Sam Massell and Ivan Allen Jr. contributed to the problem. They cut ribbons, promoted new businesses, encouraged grand new high rises and let the foul water flow.

A longtime observer (and former city official) explains the situation: ''Atlanta historically had a combined storm and sanitary system. The real problem with that sewerage setup came in the 1960s when Atlanta, after three decades of no growth, suddenly exploded with skyscrapers being built all over downtown. Rather than separating the storm sewer system from the sanitary sewer system at the time, Atlanta took the easy way out and simply continued to allow the storm waters to flow into the same pipes that carried the sanitary sewage. That practice continues and that, essentially, is what Shirley Franklin is facing.''

No matter. The city of Atlanta is killing the Chattahoochee River and seriously wounding the Flint. It must be stopped. Only the federal court has the muscle to do it.

Does Judge Thrash, a recent loyal laborer in the Democratic vineyards, have the will to use that muscle?

By the way, Alabama-native Thrash, an honors graduate of both Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia, might have enough smarts to untangle this twisted web.

P.S.: The confrontation between black-run Atlanta and the federal court presents a supreme irony. In the past, black leaders have looked to the federal courts to preserve their rights and extend their opportunities when local and state governments failed to do so. Federal judges took charge of school and university systems, prison programs and even hospitals to upgrade conditions and halt the abuse of blacks. Now the shoe is on the other foot. The federal courts are breathing down the necks of the black leaders of Atlanta to force them to stop mistreating their neighbors of all races on the downstream side of the city.

P.P.S.: The entire state has shared in the Atlanta boom, which is the root cause of the sewer problem. Too many non-Atlantans now seem to take pleasure at Atlanta's pain. But know this: A bankrupt capital won't benefit anyone in Georgia, except a handful of lawyers and bankers. State government may want to think twice about slamming the door in the city's face.